For more than a half-century, the Pabst Blue Ribbon brewery stood as the dominant industry in Peoria Heights.

Generations of residents learned to live with the smell of malt, along with traffic halts when the brewery’s semi-trailers backed onto Prospect Road. For many, a job at Pabst seemed as secure a job as any. Thus, the 1982 shutdown resounded like a death knell.

But the Heights rebounded, with a main drag now replete with upscale shops and eateries. Part of the gentrification is the Pabst Building, 4541 N. Prospect Ave. Up top, you can still see the bright PBR logo.

Most of the brewery operation was demolished over time, but the brick bastion survives (and thrives) as a four-story professional building with varied tenants. Pettet Jewelry inhabits the old “33 Room,” the hospitality hall named after Pabst’s claim that it took “33 separate brews to put such flavor, such smoothness, such unvarying goodness into a single glass of Blue Ribbon.”

More than three decades after the brewery’s closure, the mention of Pabst still engenders resentment from some quarters. Still, there’s no denying the beer’s long and strong role in the village’s history. And the blue logo still stands tall, overlooking the town.